Monday, March 11th 2024
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" to use 28 Gbps GDDR7 Memory Speed
The first round of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards that implement GDDR7 memory are rumored to come with a memory speed of 28 Gbps, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This is despite the fact that the first GDDR7 memory chips will be capable of 32 Gbps speeds. NVIDIA will also stick with 16 Gbit densities for the GDDR7 memory chips, which means memory sizes could remain largely unchanged for the next generation; with the 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory chips providing 55% higher bandwidth over 18 Gbps GDDR6 and 33% higher bandwidth than 21 Gbps GDDR6X. It remains to be seen what memory bus widths NVIDIA chooses for its individual SKUs.
NVIDIA's decision to use 28 Gbps as its memory speeds has some precedent in recent history. The company's first GPUs to implement GDDR6, the RTX 20-series "Turing," opted for 14 Gbps speeds despite 16 Gbps GDDR6 chips being available. 28 Gbps is exactly double that speed. Future generations of GeForce RTX GPUs, or even refreshes within the RTX 50-series could see NVIDIA opt for higher memory speeds such as 32 Gbps. When the standard debuts, companies like Samsung even plan to put up fast 36 Gbps chips. Besides a generational doubling in speeds, GDDR7 is more energy-efficient as it operates at lower voltages than GDDR6. It also uses a more advanced PAM3 physical layer signaling compared to NRZ for JEDEC-standard GDDR6.
Sources:
kopite7kimi (Twitter), VideoCardz
NVIDIA's decision to use 28 Gbps as its memory speeds has some precedent in recent history. The company's first GPUs to implement GDDR6, the RTX 20-series "Turing," opted for 14 Gbps speeds despite 16 Gbps GDDR6 chips being available. 28 Gbps is exactly double that speed. Future generations of GeForce RTX GPUs, or even refreshes within the RTX 50-series could see NVIDIA opt for higher memory speeds such as 32 Gbps. When the standard debuts, companies like Samsung even plan to put up fast 36 Gbps chips. Besides a generational doubling in speeds, GDDR7 is more energy-efficient as it operates at lower voltages than GDDR6. It also uses a more advanced PAM3 physical layer signaling compared to NRZ for JEDEC-standard GDDR6.
47 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" to use 28 Gbps GDDR7 Memory Speed
;-)
Let's hope AMD and nvidia don't intentionally allign once again their lineups, so that Radeon RX 8700 XT is 10% faster than RX 7800 XT, and RTX 5060 is 5% faster than RTX 4060.
That will be a disaster, but at the same time the gamers will save some money because those lineups will make the negative buying decisions much easier.
Lovely.
We can all keep enjoying the endless ‘not enough memory vs it just allocating’ and you ‘want to be future proof vs by than your fps will tank anyway’ for another episode.
Also, NV must keep the 32gbps variant for the upcoming ‘super’ 5xxx series.
- approx. $2000 RTX 5080, which will be faster than RTX 4090 ("so youre getting your money's worth", reviewers will be paid to say)
- a tier above that will be a new "Titan" class card, but aimed at "Home AI acceleration". Price? Sky is the limit.
Now every time nvidia farts we get a new post..
A monolithic chip is smaller individually but that's essentially irrelevant given that chiplets are larger horizontally. It does not make the chip extend beyond the height of caps for example and does not increase size requirements for devices. The larger chiplet based design would be easier to cool as well. Of course both of the above depend on the exact chiplet design, Intel's chiplets for example are much closer together so the size difference between it and a monolithic design is going to be less.
Of course chiplets also allow modularity, superior binning (each individual chiplet on a die can be binned), chips to exceed the reticle limit, they are cheaper to produce, and they have higher yield as compared to the same chip in a monolithic design.
AMD has 3 chiplet designs for it's entire CPU lineup: The IO die, Zen 4 core die, and the Zen 4c core die. Meanwhile Intel needs dozens of designs to address the same markets.
This is why Intel is switching to chiplet, it's just better.
unless they come up with GDDR7X again like G5X and G6X before just for a buzzword and otherwise nothingburger
Please, don't tell me fairy tales. Why did AMD abandon the failed Navi 41? Because the chiplet approach doesn't work and they leave large portions of performance on the table. That's because Intel is a large corporation and it can afford it. I, for one, also support the idea that it must cut at least 50% of the projects because they are not necessary and instead waste time and money.
1) They already have a sky-high priced RTX6000 ADA, which is an almost fully unlocked AD102 with 48GB - exactly what one would want for "home AI acceleration." They're charging $7000 for it and it's consistently out of stock.
2) They can charge even more by allocating their production towards dedicated AI chips! Those go for 15k+ while the actual die size is around the same. Sure, packaging costs, even more memory and all that but, you know, that's where the margins are.
At the end of the day I wouldn't be too surprised if they stopped bothering with gaming altogether. IMHO this might end up even worse than mining for home GPU market - that stuff went in cycles, miners weren't paying 20k for a card even in the worst moments and they wanted the same product as we do. AI people want a different product - and they can pay the price for it, hogging up all the supply they can get. If they keep doing that - where's the incentive to sell us the cards or make them better? Even high-end will become like mid- and low-end already has, with measly +5-10% boosts every couple of years.
Of course at one point chiplets will be a necessity because of rising costs but I don't think of that as a positive for consumers. It's going to be all about increasing margins. That's not really true, is it? AMD also uses monolithic CPUs.
The GCD of Navi 31 is smaller and the MCDs are tiny, for all we know it could very well be cheaper even if the total die space used is higher. I'd like to point out that AMD is whopping Intel in the server and enterprise space and has the fastest consumer desktop processors as well. To me it seems you are purposefully ignoring things that don't favor your point.
AMD pointed out why they could not yet scale up their GPUs, bandwidth. You are implying that a company is wasting money for the fun of it. I'm sure their CEO and shareholders would highly disagree. The X3D CPUs absolutely prove this false. The binning of the 5950X does as well. The 7900 XTX has a die size of 304mm2 and the MCDs have a size of 34mm2. The cost is similar to that of a mid-ranged GPU. RDNA3 doesn't reach 4090 level performance because AMD was unable to get a 2nd GCD working. Nvidia wrote a paper in 2017 about how chiplets are better FYI.
Nvidia can afford to build expensive monoliths, because AI will gobble up anything (and likes efficiency). AMD... just tries to play catch up.
Intel hasn't moved to chiplets and I doubt they have plans about it.
DG2-512 - monolithic design
DG2-128 - monolithic design
Nvidia as well:
(future) GB202 - monolithic design
(future) GB203 - monolithic design
(future) GB205 - monolithic design
(future) GB206 - monolithic design
(future) GB207 - monolithic design
AD102 - monolithic design
AD103 - monolithic design
AD104 - monolithic design
AD106 - monolithic design
AD107 - monolithic design
AMD:
(future) Navi 40 larger - monolithic design
(future) Navi 40 smaller - monolithic design
Navi 31 - non-monolithic design
Navi 32 - non-monolithic design
Navi 33 - monolithic design
Navi 21 - monolithic design
Navi 22 - monolithic design
Navi 23 - monolithic design
Navi 24 - monolithic design
What is possible - Navi 31 and Navi 32 are the first and last chiplet designs.
Much like AMD's previous mistake with HBM which they no longer use, or the abandoned multi-GPU / MCM products
I am all for faster and more efficient memory, we really need it as we keep having higher and higher density requirements.
I want your titles to be honest 100% of the time, and the articles to be consistent with the titles.